


On the Night of the New Moon

by mawmawile



Series: RNG Vocaloid [1]
Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Ancient Japan, F/F, Mermaid Aoki Lapis, Mermaids, Nonbinary Character, Reincarnation, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22096462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mawmawile/pseuds/mawmawile
Summary: The night sky was empty—Meika Mikoto asks a mermaid for help concerning their sister.
Relationships: Aoki Lapis/MEIKA Mikoto
Series: RNG Vocaloid [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1592458
Kudos: 3





	On the Night of the New Moon

Again Mikoto found themselves here, on the black rocky juts the ocean lapped against. They walked slowly so that they wouldn't lose their footing on the slippery rock, or tear their dark kimono on a sudden sharp point.

Furtively, they stole a glance around them. None would dare traverse this path, not when it was high tide, not when the afternoon sun was beginning to dim.

None but Mikoto, it seemed.

When they were satisfied with their solitude, with only the gulls screeching above, Mikoto began to sing.

At times, the song was low and sonorous, like the bear's bellowing roar. At others, it was high and ululating, like the wolf's lonesome howl. It was the song they had learnt by moonlight not so long ago. It was a song they still could not understand, deafened by their humanity—but they could sing it.

Saltwater beat against their kimono as the song at last came to a finale. The gulls had long since ceased their calls. Even the sun waned further and further, draping the sky into a moonless night. Only the sea remained. 

The new moon was a bad omen. Mikoto had avoided the juts every cycle thus far, but even a bad omen could not keep them away. Not tonight.

A luminescent blue bubbled under the surface of the water. Mikoto stood with baited breath. The blue shape broke through the meniscus, causing a spout of water to splash all over them.

"Meika Mikoto."

"Aoki-sama still uses my full name," Mikoto knelt, not making eye contact. "A mere human is not worthy of respect."

This was Aoki Lapis, an eccentric water spirit who inhabited this sea. She was as blue as a summer sky—her hair curled around the face and was long, the ends swirling as two ribbons about her. She had a long, slender tail with elegant fins. The only part of her that wasn't the color of sapphires was her human skin. It was the pale white of snow, or of bones.

"I am no god," Lapis said, but did not elaborate. "The moon is dark tonight. Something ails you."

"Yes." Mikoto moved their gaze to Lapis. She looked at them boredly, motionless in the water. "It is my sister. They are getting married."

"Is that not a joyous occasion?" Lapis tilted her head.

"Perhaps it would be, were the situation different." As much as they tried to stay impassive, a frown cracked on their face. "Hime is marrying the prince Shion Kaito-san. I do not trust his intentions, nor his character."

Lapis moved closer to the juts. They were almost face to face. "And you can't convince your sister otherwise." It was not a question.

Mikoto shook their head. "Hime has been struck by love. The Shion family has given nothing but grief to mine, and I do not expect that to change with my sister."

They bowed lower, forehead almost touching the wet rock. "I beg for Aoki-sama's help."

"Do not bow. Do not kneel." Lapis placed a white hand on the rock. "I too am a sister. But you know I cannot intervene. You know I will not."

"I can give Aoki-sama something in return, for her help." Mikoto kept their face flat. "Please."

"Come with me. That's what I want." Lapis reached for Mikoto.

"Aoki-sama knows I cannot." Still they looked away.

"But will you?" Lapis' eyes shone like stars, as bright as the moon who would return another night. But it was a new moon, and it was a bad omen.

"Who will protect my sister?" Mikoto asked. "We have no family."

"I was never human. I was born in dim waters, to a mother with many eyes and a father with no body." She was as still as stone. "I will never understand human affairs. But you, who is human, born on the earth, under the endless sky—you, who have bathed in the light of the moon god and the sun goddess alike—you, who have loved many and lost more—you know the nature of men."

"I do." The words were heavy in their mouth.

"Your name is not Mikoto—" Lapis said. "—for no reason."

Their mother hand named them Mikoto, beautiful words. It was a bout of irony, then, that they had not spoken until reaching ten years.

But there were other ways to write their name. The singular character was reserved for gods—Mikoto, Mikoto.

"It may be fate." Lapis was stoic still. "Come with me."

"I cannot. Not forever." Yet Mikoto exhaled; their hands shook. "But, it is a new moon. The cycle has begun anew this night."

"Give me your hand," Lapis said, her face as white as bone.

This was the final question, the last gate Mikoto had to face. They could not cross it and hope to return.

Meika Hime married the prince Shiro Kaito-san in two weeks. There was time, yet, before their younger sister crossed the gate of no return. There was time to protect them. And, Mikoto was human. If they were dead, if they so publicly defied the prince's will…

Lapis' white hands were cold and wet; they were uncalloused and delicate. Mikoto dropped into the evening ocean, feeling no chill. Their kimono fluttered upwards, held precariously in place only by the unfurling obi. Their long braid floated on the surface, curling around them.

Mikoto breathed in the cool air unlit by the moon before submerging completely underwater.

* * *

It was only in the morning that the body was found. The eldest child of the departed Meika-san floated by the juts, blue face towards the sky. Despite how rough the waters were, the corpse was unharmed, their face forming something of a smile.

The sister of the drowned insisted on going to the juts. Shion-san protested, on the counts of the tide. But Meika Hime pushed their way through—their wail at the precipice rang through the entire town.

Now the sole survivor of the Meika family, they went through mourning for their older sister. This mourning was, although quietly, what caused her engagement to the prince to dissolve.

In the dim waters underneath the black juts of rock, two beings swim, interlocked. One is the color of the summer sky; the other the color of winter plums. They are like moonbeams dancing in the darkness of the sea, with bone-white faces and long hair that curled around them.

The mermaids of the sea beneath the juts are seldom seen—but it has been said they appear only during the new moon, interlocked and cold.


End file.
